Another Thing My Wife Got Me Into...

It was a hot August day in the South Carolina lowcountry; the kind of heat that radiates off the old city of Charleston waiting expectantly for a sea breeze. Or, maybe, a thundercloud would form and drench us with cool rain soon to become steam I mused as the group walked up Queen Street past the half buried cannon barrel toward Meeting. We had just left the Southend Brewery and Restaurant at the corner of Queen and East Bay where our culinary adventure had begun.

I was not new to the craggy brick structure that houses a brewery and has the only glass elevator in the city. I had long enjoyed their grouper sandwiches when Vincent and I sold art on the streets. Now Vincent is gone, and I don't sell art on the street anymore and haven't been in the Southend Brewery in several years until today. Today was sort of a "Honey-do".  Claudette approached me several days ago and told me she had purchased tickets via Groupon for a Charleston Culinary Tour.  I had agreed remembering the fine progressive dinner we had enjoyed several years ago. This time we would be walking instead of taking a carriage.

I arrived at the brewery a few minutes late and found our guide, Glenn Morehead, right inside the door. He told me to go up to the third floor.  Aboard the glass elevator I surveyed the kitchen, brewing vats, and dining areas on the way up.  The tables were decked out with white tablecloths, and the earlier arrivals were already seated. I believe there were about a dozen  people, some retired couples and some younger, with a sprinkling of retired high school English teachers.  Our guide briefed us on the culinary scene in Charleston. One interesting fact was that if you ate in a different restaurant every day it would take about 15 years to complete the cycle.  Our tour would include visiting three eateries and sampling three dishes in each with commentary by the chef who prepared them.

Then, they brought out the food.  There were some interesting dishes: pulled pork with coleslaw on toast with a fried green tomato on top, char-grilled  pork, and barbecue shrimp on cheese grits. I am basically a "grits for breakfast" guy, but I've found that they're good at other meals as well. One dish at the Southend Brewery proved the exception.  The barbecued shrimp on cheese grits were

exceptionally good.   They were very coarse ground grits, and the mild cheddar cheese seemed to be suspended between each "grit". The shrimp were batter fried to perfection, a rarity.   I must admit that 99% of all the shrimp I eat have been over-cooked. Once the shrimp changes color, it's cooked.  Additional cooking just makes it tough. The barbecue sauce was red and sweet with just a bit of heat. Chopped scallions added a touch of contrasting color and additional flavor.  The dishes were great accompanied by a couple of in-house beers, a dark and a light.

We were greeted by the manager of Eli's Table  on Meeting Street. This building previously housed  Joseph's, which was a favorite of ours. We preferred their cranberry bog roll-up. But, alas, cranberry bogs are no more. The lady chef here had prepared some special treats for us.  A melon gazpacho, grilled pork chop, and peach cobbler was the fare. The gazpacho was unique with a blend of melon, cucumber, cilantro, jalapeno and other various and sundry items. The first taste was interesting with

a bit of heat. The second almost burned a hole in my tongue. If I want anything this hot, I'll light a match and eat the flame!  The pork was finished to perfection, very tender and moist, served with sweet potatoes and a pesto sauce. The couple next to me had martinis garnished with crispy fried bacon, a house speciality. The tiny peach cobblers were served in miniature canning  jars and had oatmeal topping under a dollop of whipping cream. Yum!

From there we walked over to Market Street and began the walk toward the Cooper River.  The market was full of the usual tourists. The air held a plethora of odors, the most dominant being shrimp cooking and suntan oil.  We passed the utility pole covered with tourist chewing gum which appeared to have been cleaned recently, but a new layer was being applied. Across the way was the Customs House.  Burwell's Stone Fired Grill is just before you get to the little guard house at the base of Market Street. The restaurant is relatively new and offers a unique dining experience. A very chatty fellow named Eric met us and seated us at  a long table. I immediately noticed the difference here. There was a lot more space between tables, the silverware was heavy, and a wood fired grill dominates. Here they serve a unique appetizer in a modified oriental soup spoon. It is a liquid, and since it is savory I will call it a soup. Quite tasty. According to the ever-talking Eric there is a great variety of this liquid appetizer. Eric launches into never ending facts about the restaurant and its menu. It is to be known as a steakhouse.  He says the steaks are of the finest aged beef, which comes from a cross-breed between Black Angus and Kobe cattle.  There is no Kobe breed of cattle.  Kobe is a cut of beef of Japanese beef cattle. On the menu the steaks are referred to as Wagyu steaks.  Wagyu is the Japanese word for cattle.  Nevertheless, we were served cubes of Wagyu beef to cook ourselves. Each couple had a hot lava stone on a tray placed in front of them flanked by two small bowls of steak sauce.  The stone had been heated to 700 degrees Fahrenheit and was coated with sea salt. Using my fork, I placed the cubes of meat on the

stone to cook. Forty-five seconds on each side and it was cooked to perfection. The beef was very tender and juicy. Yum! Burrell's also serves up kangaroo. Maybe I'll try that sometime. Our final dish was octopus.  Claudette got them to substitute pork for octopus in her salad.  She was not the only person who asked for a different meat.The cephalopod's tentacles were cut into one inch lengths,  grilled, and served on a bed of greens with pickled peppers. It was delicious.  I had had octopus in Japan, but this one was much more tender.  Local is better?  The texture reminded me of the pig's knuckles I had eaten in Santo Domingo, and the tiny suction cups were not a problem.  Claudette enjoyed her pork.

We enjoyed the culinary tour immensely and would recommend it highly. The tour doesn't visit the same restaurants each time.  I'm sure we will do it again. One note of interest: no one served chicken!